The Making of Indian Diplomacy : A Critique of Eurocentrism

Diplomacy is conventionally understood as an authentic European invention which was internationalised during colonialism. For Indians, the moment of colonial liberation was a false dawn because the colonised had internalised a European logic and performed European practices. Implicit in such a reading is the enduring centrality of Europe to understanding Indian diplomacy. This Eurocentric discourse renders two possibilities impossible: that diplomacy may have Indian origins and that they offer un-theorised potentialities. Abandoning this Eurocentric model of diplomacy, Deep Datta-Ray recognises the legitimacy of independent Indian diplomacy and brings new practices He creates a conceptual space for Indian diplomacy to exist, forefronting civilisational analysis and its focus on continuities, but refraining from devaluing transformational change. Deep K Datta-Ray is the only outsider to have embedded in India's Ministry of External Affairs. His book on Indian diplomacy overturns much of the accepted wisdom of it being a derivative of European colonial models, in the process shedding new light on the Indian state. The author argues on the basis of observed practices, and informal interactions and interviews with the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and diplomats, that the core of Indian diplomatic practice is to be found in the national epic, the Mahabharata, whose influence is traced from pre-Mughal times to the present. Moreover the durability of the Mahabharata's influence on Indian diplomacy was secured by India's most significant relationship of the modern political between Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. The epic inspired Gandhi's innovative conception of terminating violence non-violently, or satyagraha. His influence over Nehru ensured that satyagraha would shape the new post-colonial nation's diplomacy, testimony to which, and arguably its greatest achievement, is India's nuclear diplomacy. Dr Datta-Ray's investigation of Indian diplomacy reveals its non-Western rationale, while its presence at the heart of a state presumed Western at inception reveals new possibilities about how to conceptualize post-colonial India, its purpose and role on the world stage. While nation states authorised by nationalism remain hostage to the past, the Indian state's arena for action is very much the present, as its rational objective of non-violently terminating violence now. Contents A Note on Transliteration, Tense and Usage Glossary of Indian Words Abbreviations Introduction 1. Delusive Utopia 2. Irrepressible Present 3. Theorizing the Uncontainable 4. Inverted ‘History’ 5. Death of Diplomacy 6. Diplomacy Reborn 7. Violence of Ignorance Conclusions: In the Shadow of Power Politics Intellectualizing the Ramarajya Notes Bibliography Index